


sorry party

by mistyheartrbs



Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: Apologies, Balloons, Comfort, F/F, Post-3x05, Spoilers, also there's a haunted radio station
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-24
Updated: 2018-08-24
Packaged: 2019-07-01 22:14:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15783171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mistyheartrbs/pseuds/mistyheartrbs
Summary: Nicole, balloons, and a trip to the big city.





	sorry party

**Author's Note:**

> special thanks to my good friend @splattery on twitter for posting about nicole going to a party city to get the balloons for waverly and then allowing me to turn it into a fic

Purgatory, understandably, did not have much in the way of party supply stores. It wasn't like there was ever much to celebrate in the town, anyway, unless you counted demons periodically sent back to hell, and no shop would stay open just to serve the six people who knew about _that._

Thus, Nicole Haught found herself driving the police cruiser to the big city, trying not to think about what she said to Waverly and listening to the only radio station Purgatory could be bothered to pick up. She was fairly certain said radio station was haunted, considering how it'd only played garbled screeching and the same Alanis Morissette song on loop for an hour and a half. Finally, she reached her destination, trying not to feel daunted by the massive shining buildings and roads full of cars. It was incredible what a year in the middle of nowhere would do to someone. Idly, she realized that she hadn't left Purgatory since she'd arrived there. She supposed the Earps had made it hard to leave. 

Nicole decided, then, to leave the sappy thoughts for when she saw Waverly again. Currently, Wynonna was taking her turn apologizing back at the homestead, and Nicole was certain that Michelle was around, too. In the meantime, she stood in front of a very loudly branded Party City, advertising all kinds of Christmas decorations with plastic mannequins draped in feathers and Santa hats. She walked right past them to the counter, where a teenage girl covered in tattoos lazily glanced up, fixing her nametag. 

"You want something?" the girl - the shop clerk, clearly, even if she was much too young for it - muttered, slowly pushing herself up. Nicole nodded, maybe a little too quickly. The clerk looked her up and down with a raised eyebrow. "Are you a cop? Because I promise there's nothing illegal in here." 

"No. I mean, yes, but that's not why I'm here. Do you have anything that says 'I'm really sorry and I don't ever want to hurt you again?'" 

"Fresh out of that, I'm afraid." 

"Anything _like_ that?" 

"I'll check." The clerk shuffled into the back, leaving Nicole to look at the array of balloons. Ninja Turtles and Pokémon stared back at her, and she silently stared until one in particular caught her eye. 

"That one," she blurted out, pointing right to the balloon in question. The clerk popped her head out of the back. 

"The unicorn?" 

"Exactly." 

"Oh, I found this too." The clerk held up a picture of a blue balloon with the word _SORRY_ in bubbled letters. "I'll have to blow it up, though." 

"That's fine. Just, erm, make a nice arrangement of them. It doesn't matter how much it costs." The clerk started jotting down notes on a legal pad. 

"And when d'you want this?" 

"As soon as possible." Nicole was surprised to hear a warble in her voice, and she pressed her hands on the counter to steady herself. "Please. I had this horrible fight with my girlfriend a-and I said a lot of things I didn't mean because there was this . . . woman with cupcakes and-"

"I get the gist. Come back in an hour." 

"Thank you." Nicole graciously dropped a tip on the counter and bowed out, taking deep breaths all the while. The plastic decorations were starting to feel like they were crowding her, and in any case she'd missed the bustle of the city more than she'd have liked to admit. Silently counting the minutes, she wandered down the streets, coming upon brand-name stores and tall office buildings, one after the other. It was nothing at all like Purgatory. 

She didn't regret her decision to go there for a second. 

***

"Thank you," Nicole said, for what must've been the hundredth time that day. The clerk looked like she wanted her out of the store. Nicole also wanted out of the store, but for entirely different reasons. 

"Good luck," the clerk replied, and promptly rested back on her elbows. Nicole tugged the balloons down so they wouldn't get caught in the door, wrangling them into the car and cursing at herself and terrible, awful _Jolene_ all the way through because sure, she'd been a demon who brainwashed people with confections and seductions, her purpose in life was to make Waverly miserable, and now she was dead in the ground, but that didn't undo what had been said. Nothing would, probably, but hopefully the balloons crowding Nicole's field of vision would come close as a scratchy, screechy version of _You Oughta Know_ played all the way home. 

_Home._

Now, when had she started thinking of Purgatory like that?

***

Wynonna and Michelle stood on the porch when Nicole reached the homestead. Seeing them stand next to each other like that really did show the family resemblance - not just in the physical but in the way they carried themselves, the flinty determination in their eyes. Michelle looked at Nicole, the balloons, then at Wynonna, who whispered something that looked a lot like _we'll talk later_ in her ear. 

"She's upstairs," Wynonna said out loud, jabbing her thumb indoors, looking exhausted. 

"Thanks." Nicole squeezed between the pair on her way to the door, tugging down the balloons again. 

"Nicole, huh?" she heard Michelle say, louder than she probably intended. Wynonna's sigh - endeared, tired, she couldn't quite tell - was easy to hear as well.

"Yeah." 

***

Waverly sat, then, at the foot of her bed, curled up in a little ball. The sun shone on her through the window and Nicole cautiously crept over, approaching her like she'd sometimes approach Calamity Jane on days when she was particularly skittish, waiting until she was closer to speak. 

"Hey," she half-whispered. Waverly looked up. 

"Nicole?" A pause. "Where'd you get those?" 

"Party City." 

"There's no Party City in Purgatory." 

"I know." Nicole winked - she couldn't help it. Dire as today had been, terrifying as it all was, she figured Waverly deserved something normal, some kind of casual flirting that could almost make up for the demons outside. "Has Wynonna checked the radio tower lately?" Waverly furrowed her brow. 

"It's been abandoned since 1995."

"Figures." Nicole plopped down next to her, letting the balloons drift to a corner. "I drove to the city to get them." 

"All the way out there?" Waverly closed her eyes, leaning against the bed. "D'you ever think about leaving? I mean, you could go anywhere. Any town would be lucky to have you. We could still call and you wouldn't have to worry about demons and-"

"Nope." Nicole leaned over, nestling into Waverly's shoulder, holding her hand like it was the easiest thing in the world. It was. "You know why? Because all while I was driving out there I realized that I missed _this._ My little apartment and Nedley a-and Wynonna and Jeremy and Doc and the homestead and _you."_

"You're a sap." 

"I'm _your_ sap." Nicole looked up at the shelf, trinkets still toppled over from Jolene's attack, the closet door still ajar. "Hey, are you okay?" 

"I will be." Waverly pulled her knees closer to her chest. "Did Mama and Wynonna see you downstairs?" 

"Yeah." 

"Thanks, by the way. For . . . for all of this." It was a quiet moment, just a bit of comfort, but Nicole supposed it was all that mattered right about then. 

"Anytime, baby."

**Author's Note:**

> we all have our jolenes, but we also have nicoles and wynonnas and people who love us. don't forget that.


End file.
